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On the Symbol of the Rainbow

The Westboro Baptist Church is a comically irrelevant, isolated family organization known for their anti-homosexual views. It has been promoted to the absurd status of national bogeyman by teenagers on tumblr. Aaron Jackson, a professional activist and the founder of Planting Peace, has even purchased a home across from the church and painted it the colors of the rainbow to fight this scourge:

Well isn't that cute! Aren't we making a difference now! Who needs to worry about things like an unsustainable debt money system, massive urban decay, or indefinite military detention provisions when you can get such a comfortable career in the activism industry? According to Gawker, Aaron even got to meet one of the semi-celebrities he's 'protesting':

To the best of anyone's knowledge, this will all come as a surprise to the WBCers. A few weeks ago, Jackson was walking around the iced-over block when he met Fred Phelps' daughter Shirley, out plowing snow on an ATV. She was wearing a helmet, so he didn't know who she was was until they and her husband got to chatting. She apparently cracked a pretty decent joke. "We all shared a giggle together," Jackson said. "It was a sweet moment. And I just carried on."

The website of his organization, Planting Peace, profiles work it has done for the sundry causes of helping orphans, providing deworming, promoting equality, conserving the rainforest, and planting trees, in locales ranging from Bolivia to North Korea. The concept of the house across from Westboro is also explained:

Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.

A symbol — that's all this house is, a one dimensional commitment to a movement entirely without depth, engaged in a fake pop culture campaign against impotent phantoms. Let's not kid ourselves — the Westboro Baptist Church wouldn't exist as a cultural meme if their brand of over-the-top sloganeering didn't somehow mimic their detractors, who are also their publicists.

Let us be wary of the rainbow. Those who preach the embrace of all quickly become comfortable company to the most unlovable, the obsessive projects of reform on which they focus their lives of scattered light. They come only after a storm, and quickly fade away.